The Colley family is riven by secrets and lies. On the surface, there is tremendous support and love, but below that surface lie truths which the family members need to keep hidden – but truths have a nasty habit of surfacing.

Moorton Tops is a village of colliers and their families. Every dangerous shift takes the men 2000 feet below the ground and their wives await their safe return, but it leaves some wives and one in particular, with time on their hands.

However, the community of Moorton Tops is profoundly close-knit and an unguarded word or a late-night view from a window can cause repercussions; for Doreen Colley, potentially deadly ones.

Paul Garvey was born in the mining town of Pontefract on the Yorkshire coalfield and his early childhood was spent among miners, though his own father escaped the collieries and worked as a clerk. However, his grandma often looked after him in Monkhill, built to house the miners at the ‘Prince of Wales’ colliery when his mum was at work. His grandad has died of lung cancer and pneumoconiosis from a lifetime down the pits and his uncle died soon after retiring early. Both were face-workers and both took him for walks to collect their pay and also to the ‘Miners’ Welfare’ where he spent many a happy lunchtime, playing on the slot machines and eating crisps, while they enjoyed a few pints. It was a damn hard life and few miners lived long after retirement. His uncle Walt lost an arm in an horrific accident underground. A lovely man and after his injury, he worked in the lamp-house, giving out lamps and tokens and collecting them, at the start and end of shifts.

Paul left Pontefract to attend university in Reading. Really, he needed to get as far away as possible, but the ties that bind them were strong and he returned to live with his dad and then married Julie, and they lived in the ex-mining village of Ackworth, near his childhood home. Now they live in South Wales near their two children and two grandchildren and close to the valleys—another area steeped in coal mining history.

Frost Patterns is part fiction and part autobiography—have fun trying to sort the real history from the invention! Part of writing this novel is also to help preserve the language. The voices of the Colley family and their village, are the authentic voices Paul heard in his childhood and the voices of the people he hears when they return to see family and friends.

Enjoy the book, but never forget the miners and their brutally hard work. They helped to make Britain rich.

Customer Reviews

5.0

3 reviews

Amazon Customer

Frost Patterns, the author, Paul Garvey’s, debut novel, is quite simply stunning. Semi-autobiographical, Frost Patterns is the story of the Colley family and their lives in a close-knit mining community in West Yorkshire in the early 1960s. The book also cleverly takes the reader back to the 1920s and World War 2 to contextualise the main story. Frost Patterns puts life in a traditional mining village under the microscope, illustrating the importance of families’ histories, loyalties, and unforgotten feuds which impact on the Colleys’ lives over a 40 year period. A remarkable feature of the book is how the author writes in the dialect of the area when characters are speaking which brings them to life for the reader. The story is gritty and heartwarming in equal parts, and works as a social commentary of those times in communities bound together by coal-mining. I was gripped from page 1.
N.J.Clapham

An excellent read. Found it difficult to put down, always keen to know the dénouement. The use of local dialect aids the authenticity. I await the sequel with interest, having already had a sneak preview from the author!
Christine Brown

I bought this book and from start to finish I was engrossed. The area in which it is based is easily recognised especially the town of Pontefract. Surnames of families I knew as a teenager in the 70’s have been used for fictional families which stirred happy memories. I can’t wait for the sequel.